When you think of great punk rock cities, or even great rock cities, Hobart may not be one that springs instantly to mind. However, Tassie punkers Luca Brasi have been carving out a pretty damn respectable career for themselves from the Apple Isle's capital city for the past seven to eight years. They say that a band's origin and surroundings, and factors such as population, climate, isolation and so forth, can have a profound effect on their songwriting and output, but Luca Brasi's bass playing vocalist Tyler Richardson isn't sure if living in a beautiful but cold and isolated city — at the very bottom end of the land Down Under — has made much of a difference to who and what they are.

"No, it's awesome man," Richardson enthuses, "I don't think it's got a lot to do with it. I guess we just don't have anything to compare it to. The only thing I can say is that when we started, we wouldn't get the opportunity to go and play supports in Melbourne or Sydney as easily, it wasn't a readily available thing for us."

He feels that the major factor in the band reaching the level and the profile that they have achieved is simply their willingness to be persistent and put in the hard yards. "We've just had to work hard and keep pushing," he says, "just keep touring nationally, and things have opened up. It's not really that far to Melbourne, it's an hour's flight. And there's great music here and some great people. We're from Tassie and we always will be."

So have you ever considered pulling up roots and moving the band north to a larger capital city? "Nah, whenever we've considered moving to Sydney or Melbourne, we've always been like 'we're pretty good here, we'll make it work!'" He laughs.

"Whenever we've considered moving to Sydney or Melbourne, we've always been like 'we're pretty good here, we'll make it work!'"

Punk rock, as much as, and possibly even more so than any other style of music, has its own attitude, its own aesthetic, its own look, and is said to be truly the result of its exponents' upbringings and environments. Again, Richardson is unsure if this is the case regarding his own band, in fact, he is not even certain if Luca Brasi fits comfortably into the whole 'punk rock' definition anymore. "I think we don't actually fit into that category as much these days," he states, "we're not too fussed about what you call it. We've been called that quite a few times over the years, but we don't really care."

That said, the band still probably fits loosely into that classification, when such things are required, and he still has quite defined ideas as to what the term 'punk' actually means in the modern age. Especially since the definition of what punk music is has shifted a little since the likes of The Stooges and The Sex Pistols were at their respective peaks. However, he feels that the overarching meaning and attitude has remained pretty consistent. "I still think the term means doing what you want and not worrying what other people think," he opines, "doing your own thing, living your own life, making your own decisions.

"I think that will always be the roots of the word, doing what you want, having your own opinions and believing strongly in things. Maybe the music doesn't so much anymore, compared to what it used to, but I still think the root of the word is as strong as the genre ever was."

One listen to the band's latest album, If This Is All We're Going To Be, and Richardson's words are given sharper focus. While not actually bristling with the frenetic, angsty energy that most fans associate with punk rock, the whole 'do what you want and to hell with what other people think' attitude is all over it. A full year since its release, and after playing it live over and over, he still has great affection for the record and what it's achieved for them. "I'm still completely blown away by it, and by the fact that it's allowed us to do all this crazy shit like tour the world, be on the radio all the time and do shit like that, that we never, ever expected was possible," he gushes, "so we're really grateful for the opportunities that the record has given us, it's crazy."

As amazing as the album has been for them, both in terms of the reaction to it and where it's taken them, geographically and profile-wise, they are not a band to rest on their laurels, and have already taken major strides towards recording and releasing a follow-up to If This Is All We're Going To Be. "I'd say we're maybe half way through the process," he reveals, "we're already just flat out stuck right into it, the boys are working hard on new music."

In the meantime, fans Australia-wide can be very content with the fact that the band are heading out on a very extensive national tour in mid-late June, which takes in every mainland state and runs for the following month. It is set to be a major step up for them, in terms of the profile of the tour, the size of the venues and the number of people they will be playing in front of. "This will be the biggest one for us in our history, the biggest rooms in every city by quite a lot," he states, "so we're stoked as."

And the superb national and international line-up they are taking with them on the road around the country makes it even more attractive to Aussie punk, rock and heavy music punters. "We've got a band from Baltimore called Pianos Become The Teeth," Richardson announces proudly, "who are like a post-hardcore band, their last record's just incredible. They've been away for a little while, but now they're back, so we thought we'd get them on board, which is great.

"We've also got a girl called Maddy Jane," he continues, describing the bill, "who is killing it right now, everywhere. She's doing a bunch of stuff at the moment, every tour I look at she's doing the support, which is huge for her. Then there's some really good mates of ours called Speech Patterns, who haven't really done a lot, but we're stoked to give them the opportunity. It's a great line-up."

Now, seven to eight years down the road, the future looks very bright for these hard rocking Taswegians, to the point where they take the time to plan their career and set medium to longer term goals for themselves to achieve. "The first couple of records, we really didn't," he recalls, "because we didn't really plan to actually do anything. We just got a lot more serious after the last one or leading up to that record, the year before last, that's when things got really serious.

"Having a theme, and working on plans, and having a clue what we were doing became more important. Everything going forward was far better planned out than it ever was, our goals, we've just seemed to have ticked off so many in the last year, so we're stoked."